Here's the plan. Pump prices held down until just before Thankgiving and then they pop to

[CK_John]

$4/5 per gal. Holiday travel ruined, markets tank, layoffs are announced and everybody is pissed off. Bushco blames instability on the wimpy DEM's and Iran. Everybody (almost 70%) start demanding to turn Iran into a parking lot.

Remove tinfoil hat. How far off the mark is this?

[Sanity Claws]

1. Republicans guaranteed to lose if gas goes that high

and layoffs occur. I think the anger will be against Bushco, not Iran.

[CK_John]

6. Those things are going to happen anyway. We are avoiding the problem. The GOP

will adapt to the situation to their talking points and march all over us.

[Warpy]

2. That's about when the futures will kick in and force them higher

but my guess is that big oil will try to hold them at around $3.50 around most of the country until the week before Xmas, at the earliest.

After all, they're all heavily invested in companies that make shit, and they want that shit to sell this year.

This is going to be an interesting Xmas season, to say the very least. Either it'll be a killer to merchandisers, or it'll be the last one people go out on a limb and charge to their credit cards, knowing this is the last good one they'll have.

[Selatius]

5. It's going to be a shitty Xmas season. All signs point to very weak economic numbers.

Inflation due to high gas prices and a credit crunch due to an imploding housing market are big negatives. The real world unemployment figures are worse than what the government reports.

[Warpy]

14. So is inflation

which is why I think people who can still leverage debt are going to do so for one last Xmas before the crash.

[yourout]

3. Better sight in your gun.....

Your senario would result in a Republican bloodbath in the 08 elections.

[Basileus Basileon]

4. Interesting, but I'd have to disagree.

1. Oil prices are skyrocketing at the moment and pumps are setting records, so they aren't doing a very good job of "holding prices down."
2. Everyone understands that instability raises oil prices.
3. Everyone understands that warfare destroys oil infrastructure.
4. Everyone understands that Iran can shut down a great portion of the world's oil trade.
5. Nobody blames Iran for oil prices.
6. Oil prices are not rising because of a secret greedy cabal. They're rising because worldwide growth in demand is exceeding the ability to increase supply.

[CK_John]

9. Bush wants war, the economy is going to tank, They will put 2 + 2 together,

unless we get involved in reality and start addressing those questions and stop pissing on each other's shoes.

[Alcibiades]

11. People do need to be reminded

In the absence of a compelling case that actually explains the increase better than whatever it is they are told to think by Fox News, people are free to blame Iran for the price of oil. We should doggedly convey the simple message that this latest spat of instability, i.e. the occupation of Iraq, was brought about by Bush and Cheney, and so they are responsible for the increase in the price of gasoline.

I think the OP was saying that gas prices are being kept lower than what they would be if big oil were not trying to keep prices down.

I'd agree with you in that oil isn't rising because of a secret greedy cabal. It's not secret at all.

[Basileus Basileon]

15. And that cabal is called

Indian, Chinese, and American industry, which is straining the ability of OPEC to meet demand.

[Alcibiades]

20. OPEC isn't the only source of supply

But of course you know that.

The use of oil by industry and consumers isn't simply a natural fact, and you ought to consider questioning it. It's been created by politically active, self-interested players. The oil industry has, over the past century, made moves politically in order to increase its market share as an energy source. Don't really have the time to go into this in detail, but if you'd like more info, pick up Edwin Black's Pulitzer-nominated book: "Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives."

Of course, the same people who hooked the world on oil also put a great deal of money into denying the global warming crisis, which today even Bush, who does not believe in science, acknowledges is real.

Today, these same actors are telling us that it is perfectly neutral, disinterested market forces that are moving the price of gasoline, despite the fact that the major players have monopsony power in the market, and have also used political muscle and collusion to maximize profits at the expense of consumers and the environment for the past hundred years.

A cabal? You betcha.

Don't blame China and India for rising oil prices. China is consumer number two, but they use less than a third of the amount of oil we do and have a billion people. Japan, Germany and Russia all rank ahead of India, which also has a billion people. If you're really focused on the demand side, America's 20,730,000 bbl/day should jump out at you. On a per capita basis, the clear culprit is the US.

[JDPriestly]

17. $3.17 per galon for regular in my neighborhood in L.A. tonight.

The price is rising rapidly.

[whistle]

7. Jet fuel has to be effected right now, are airlines raising prices yet?

[Basileus Basileon]

16. Jet fuel isn't as impacted, but most airlines did another cross-the-board

$20 (or so) increase last week.

[Alcibiades]

8. If gas goes that high, Bush & Cheney own it

It drives my Dad nuts every time I remind him that gas was $1.41 a gallon when Clinton left office. Even the Cool-Aid drinkers know the incontrovertible facts on this one. War in the Middle East has caused gas to skyrocket, and since Bush owns the war, he owns the increase in gas prices.

Of course, we do need to take this further--why is it that Republicans oppose things such as a modest gas tax increase, but Bush can pursue policies that lead to a trebling of the price of oil and they are OK with it? Why is more money to pay down the debt bad, but more money for Exxon-Mobil is good?

[CK_John]

10. You don't understand, they don't give a damn. They want a war. n/t

[Alcibiades]

12. Sure they do, but they are also cheap

The minute you reframe the increase in gas prices as being like a massive tax increase, it's very much deflating for the non-rich members of the Republican base.

And, I'm sorry, but they don't get to have a new war until they finish the war they have. If they cannot finish what's on their plate already, no seconds!

[Imagevision]

13. Excellant idea, if I was Bush I would do whatever to max out big biz opportunities before

leaving office which in all reality is precisely what is going to happen, but doing the gas-jack in prices for Thanksgiving? it's like labor day and Holiday where mass travel once again provides an opportunistic time to do a $$$ squeeze for the almighty buck, it's the American way...

[Trajan]

18. Why would the DEMS be blamed ?

It is the fault of the GOP, and Bushco ....

Even the republican electorate isn't going to buy that crap .... so why should you ?

[CK_John]

19. GOP will blame us for everything. If the DEM's don't start addressing real problems today.

instead of made up problems like SS (which is ok until 2036) then they are letting the GOP walk all over us.